Page 46 of Rider Daddies
But not quite.
I assess how far away the ground is beneath me. I could make the jump and still have all bones and ligaments intact, no problem. What concerns me are the two men doing laps around the perimeter of the parking lot. They must be security guards hired by Manual to prevent victims from escaping.
They look like giants, the pair of them. Every time one of them comes into the light, I examine their faces. Dealing with clients at the law firm makes you a pro at reading facial expressions. Right now, all I’m getting is pissed off and bored.
I bet they’re mad that Manual threw them on the night shift.
One of them catches my eye, which stops him in his tracks for a second. I stare down at him, waiting for him to strike up aconversation, but he simply looks back down and continues to walk.
“Ouch, it looks like they knocked you out real bad.”
I turn and see a girl emerge from the motel room next to mine, a painful look on her face as she surveys me.
“Part of it was my own fault.” I raise my elbow. “Thought it would be a good idea to smash car window glass with this thing. Adrenaline is a crazy bitch.”
“At least you tried to fight them.” The girl tightens a silk robe around her slender body and stands beside me. “I just seized up and let them take me. Probably didn’t help that I was stoned out of my ass.”
I laugh, but the smile quickly fades when I see how innocent the girl looks. “How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
Fucking sickos.
“What’s going on here?” I ask her.
“What do you think?”
“So, what’s Manual’s deal? He steals girls away from their homes and puts them up here in this crappy motel as storage until somebody decides to buy us?”
“Pretty much.” The girl looks out at the motel with a vacant look in her eye.
“How long have you been here?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. There’s no clocks. The only way to work out the time is by looking at the sun.”
I chew on my lip, looking out at the motel with her.
Home sweet home.
“We’ll find a way to get out of here,” I try to assure her.
“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that line,” she says, eyes still staring straight out ahead of her.
“I’m serious. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it.”
“I don’t doubt that,” the girl says. “But you don’t understand. It’s impossible. Girls have tried to escape in the dead of night, but these two are always on the prowl…and they don’t miss nothin’.” She turns to me. “You wanna know what happens when they catch you?”
I stare at her, preparing for the worst.
“Something worse than death.”
A shiver runs through me. This time, it’s not from the cold wind.
“How are these cunts getting away with all of this?” I ask.
The girl widens her blue eyes, fright taking over her face. “Shush. You wanna watch what you say around here. Manual’s men must have hidden microphones in all the rooms. A girl was relocated because she was talking shit about one of her handlers. Calling him a rhinoceros-looking gimp with a nose that looked more like a horn.”
I burst into laughter.
